Reaction Engines Ltd is headed by rocket engineer Alan Bond. Skylon in some ways a development of the British Aerospace HOTOL (Horizontal Take-Off and Landing) spaceplane which was abandoned in the 1980s. Apparently funding has now been found to develop an actual working model of the revolutionary air-breathing rocket engines required for Skylon.

RickLewis wrote:... Skylon in some ways a development of the British Aerospace HOTOL (Horizontal Take-Off and Landing) spaceplane which was abandoned in the 1980s. Apparently funding has now been found to develop an actual working model of the revolutionary air-breathing rocket engines required for Skylon.

Bloody Govt! If we'd supported and funded HOTOL we'd be at the forefront by now and I'd be 'nipping' to Australia for the weekend

Same short-sight as with the Blue Streak, Black Prince et al. misslle programs, but I accept that money was a problem at the time, but still think it was a bigger waste to lose this technology and effectively hand it over to the Yanks and others and don't get me started on the TSR-2!

RickLewis wrote:... Skylon in some ways a development of the British Aerospace HOTOL (Horizontal Take-Off and Landing) spaceplane which was abandoned in the 1980s. Apparently funding has now been found to develop an actual working model of the revolutionary air-breathing rocket engines required for Skylon.

Bloody Govt! If we'd supported and funded HOTOL we'd be at the forefront by now and I'd be 'nipping' to Australia for the weekend

Same short-sight as with the Blue Streak, Black Prince et al. misslle programs, but I accept that money was a problem at the time, but still think it was a bigger waste to lose this technology and effectively hand it over to the Yanks and others and don't get me started on the TSR-2!

HOTOL was way, way ahead of its time. The same people have been working on it ever since, and they have made impressive progress with their high-speed heat exchange which is at the heart of their propulsion system, but even so it is years away (and billions of $ away) from being a practical launch system.